At least five masked assailants armed with BB guns, shotguns and a handgun rifled through a student-occupied Dinkytown house Sunday evening in search of cash and drugs.
Adam Basalay, a sophomore studying aerospace engineering, lives with five other students at the house on the 1400 block of Sixth St. southeast. He said the suspects walked in through an unlocked front door at 9:50 p.m. and terrorized the roommates for 45 minutes.
“They were looking for money, guns and drugs,” Basalay said. He said the suspects appeared to be teen-agers. All but one of the assailants wore a mask during the raid.
Minneapolis police are investigating the incident. No arrests have been made.
Basalay said the Minneapolis Police investigators dusted a safety-deposit box to check for fingerprints.
The assailants, vocally expressing frustration when they couldn’t find what they were looking for, smacked the residents on the backs of their heads with the guns throughout the holdup, Basalay said. They also tied the students’ hands with phone cords and Nintendo wires as they searched the house.
Basalay said the suspects brought the residents into a basement room and barricaded the door with a refrigerator. Two other friends of the residents were at the house during the ordeal.
The suspects forced a few of the students to balance empty beer kegs on their backs as they searched the house, Basalay said.
Although they could not find any drugs or guns, Basalay said the robbers made off with a Nintendo 64, a VCR, a computer, a calculator, CDs and $300 cash.
A roommate who had the left the house to buy groceries arrived shortly before the suspects left. They tied the student up with phone cords, Basalay said.
The student managed to flag down a neighbor to call the police after the assailants left the house, Basalay said.
Six police officers arrived to interview the residents.
“Everybody is trying to deal with this,” Basalay said. All of the roommates have found other places to stay since the burglary.
Some have decided to move back in with their parents. Others have settled in at friends’ houses for the time being, Basalay said.
A burglar broke into the home last September, making off with CDs, a laptop computer and a leather jacket.
In other police news:
ù University Police arrested a 19-year-old woman early Sunday morning for assaulting a tow-truck driver, according to police reports.
Gina Gunter, 19, has been charged with one count of fifth degree assault, according to a criminal complaint. An arraignment hearing has been scheduled in Hennepin County Court for Friday.
According to police reports, a tow-truck driver told police Gunter assaulted him while he tried to tow her car from a parking lot on the 1600 block of University Ave. southeast. The car was parked illegally in a private lot.
Police arrested Gunter at the scene and booked her at Hennepin County Jail shortly after 4 a.m. She was also cited for driving while intoxicated.
Gunter has been living at a home in Roseville but is originally from a small town in central Wisconsin. She is not affiliated with the University.
“It was just a big joke,” Gunter said. She contends the tow-truck driver incited her to engage in a shoving match with him.
The tow-trucker driver was not identified in the police report.
Gunter said her father planned to come to the party to drive her car home, but another car blocked her car from leaving the lot. She then called for a tow truck.
When the tow-truck driver arrived, he started to tow her car. Gunter tried to stop him, and the shoving match ensued.
Gunter’s car was impounded for two days, she said. Although Gunter said she did not plan on driving the car home, officers cited her for drunken driving.